MIDLAND, MI – When Passmore Mupindiko’s grandfather taught him how to sculpt, an art that once captured the images of Zimbabwe’s tribal chiefs so that new generations would know what great men they were, the 7-year-old couldn’t imagine where his art would lead him.

In mid-June, it brought Mupindiko, now 37, to Midland’s Dow Gardens, where he and fellow Zimbabwean sculptor Patrick Sephani plan to demonstrate their skills as part of the ZimSculpt exhibit on display through Aug. 4.

More than 100 works pulled from the serpentine stones native to Africa’s east coast are scattered throughout the grounds at 1809 Eastman. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., admission costs $5 for adults, $1 for students and $10 for an annual pass. Children age 5 and younger are admitted free.

Sephani, 33, was 7 when neighbors introduced him to sculpting, “and today, my work reflects the environment I live in,” he said. Tradition turns contemporary, he said, as his personal style depicts women, “honoring the role they play in our society and becoming a voice to the voiceless.”

Unique to the Zimbabwe art, said curator Vivienne Croisette, with her husband Joseph the last of the country’s art dealers living in the African country themselves, “is the way they take a cold, hard rock and find the compassion inside. At first sight, it makes an immediate emotional connection.”

The process begins with finding the right stone “and looking for the image that comes out at that moment,” Mupindiko said. “We are all one with the natural formation of the rock.”

Then, using tungsten and diamond tools and sandpaper, “we use techniques to polish parts to a deep color and leave others raw, adding texture,” Sephani said. “We get it from the quarry in its natural form and find the right balance.”

It’s changing, too, he said, as the sculptors travel around the world, displaying and selling their work and learning from others about their cultures.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be in the end,” Sephani said of his works.

Mupindiko, whose sculptures tap into nature, is a far more accomplished artist than he lets on, Croisette said.

“He is part of a very famous art community called Tengenenge in the northern part of Zimbabwe,” she said. “Eighty artists and their families live there on what was once a tobacco farm owned by a Dutch man. When sanctions kept him from selling his tobacco, he encouraged his workers to create art from rocks on the nearby mountains.

“The rest is history.”

Today, in a country where life expectancy at times dips into the 40s, the artists are passing along what they’ve learned to their children.

Sephani’s 6-year-old son is already working with stones that a hammer won’t dent, he said. And Mupindiko’s 13-year-old daughter is an accomplished sculptor in her own right, her father says.